The Financial Impacts of Severe Weather on Utility Companies

Weather is one of the most important impacts on the volatility of a utility's income. While a utility can expect a certain amount of severe weather throughout the year, without advanced planning and notice, the financial impacts can be much worse than anticipated.

Save money by reducing unserved energy losses from poor planning. As a result, the energy reserve will be much closer to the demand required. For example, according to a report prepared for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the unserved energy losses are 10.1% across the economy from a cost of service perspective.

Reduce excessive overtime pay from inefficient scheduling. Releasing maintenance personnel that are unnecessary and reducing transmission operators and management teams when weather is expected to be tranquil are just some of a few useful examples.

Help avoid regulatory fines. After Hurricane Sandy, Con Edison was fined $2 billion for its ineffective response to the storm. Similarly, California's PG&E was also fined $1.6 billion in 2015 for a 2010 deadly gas explosion due to faulty piping that was aggravated by the lack of water and excessive heat in the region.

With just a small outlay of StormGeo data, proper scheduling, maintenance, and preparation could have avoided many drastic decisions that resulted in the loss of life and ongoing power transmission.

For more information and to obtain a better understanding of how StormGeo can help manage outage prediction and reduce unserved energy loss, please contact us. Let our expert meteorologists and weather guidance consultants take your utility’s safety and preparedness to the next level so that you can continue to serve the community that depends on you.